Lewis and Clark Area Council

Boy Scouting in Virginia

Lewis and Clark Area Boy Scout Council

Beginning in February 1927, Charles E. Wood, Special Deputy Regional Scout Executive of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), along with the Charlottesville Rotary Club led the effort to establish the Lewis and Clark Area Boy Scout Council #599 in Albemarle and the adjacent counties. The February 18, 1927 edition of Charlottesville’s, The Daily Progress reported that Regional Executive Wood was sent to Charlottesville by BSA headquarters in New York City at the request of two prominent Charlottesvillians, W.H. Surber, president of the Charlottesville Rotary Club, and Dr. Vincent W. Archer, faculty member at the University of Virginia and chairman of the Charlottesville YMCA Boy Work Committee. For some time Surber and Archer had been interested in forming a Boy Scout council in this area. Individual Boy Scout troops had operated in Charlottesville since the founding of the movement in 1910 (and maybe since 1908…). There was an early attempt to form a Boy Scout council in Charlottesville in the Spring of 1915, but this was short lived and that council never matured. Immediately prior to coming to Charlottesville, BSA Executive Wood had successfully organized the neighboring Stonewall Jackson (Area) Council, headquartered in Staunton in Augusta County.

There were nine other Boy Scout councils chartered in Virginia in the mid-1920s, mostly confined to the major urban centers of the Commonwealth (e.g., Roanoke, Richmond, Norfolk, Danville, etc). The Lewis and Clark Area Council probably represented the most rural of the regions that were then under a council jurisdiction. However, much of the state was still excluded from council-level administration at this time. While he was in Charlottesville during the late winter and spring, Executive Wood conducted surveys in the City and amongst the surrounding counties to gauge interest and support for a new Boy Scout council and secured support agreements from several organizations, including; the Young Men’s Business Club, American Legion, and Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs to integrate Scouting into their own boy work programs. Interestingly, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) is conspicuously absent from this list, but the National YMCA had integrated its boy program with Scouting since the incorporation of Scouting in 1910, and a troop had been organized under the auspices of the local YMCA chapter several years earlier. The Charlottesville Ministerial Association, the Elks, and the railroad men’s organizations also formally endorsed and supported the formation of a Boy Scout council here.

After several months of preparations, the Lewis and Clark Area Boy Scout Council was ultimately perfected in August 1927 with the hiring of full-time scout executive W.L. Leap. A full-time executive qualified the Lewis and Clark Area Council as a first-class council, which was headquartered in Charlottesville. The Council encompassed a large footprint including; Albemarle, Culpeper, Orange, and Madison counties, as well as the City of Charlottesville. At least one Boy Scout troop would have already been organized in each of these counties at the time of Council organization.

The Council’s first executive, William Lester Leap, was a native of Roanoke. He was born September 17, 1901 and attended Roanoke High School (RHS) where he was a corporal in the RHS Corps of Cadets, assistant business manager of the high school yearbook, the Acorns of Roanoke, and vice-president of the Jeffersonian Literary Society. A graduate of Washington and Lee University in 1923, Leap was a four year manager of the track team and a member of the university’s yearbook staff, the Calyx. After graduation, he completed Columbia University’s Home Study Course in Scoutmastership and was, for a time, a Scoutmaster in Roanoke after he graduated college.

When Scout Executive Leap took charge of the Council organization in August 1927, there were 202 scouts registered in 11 troops across the four counties in the Council. Within a year, he had administered a 42 percent increase in scout membership (total=287) and increased the number of troops to 14. Four additional troops (in Albemarle County) were also in the final stages of organization in Crozet, North Garden, and City of Charlottesville (Orange County News, August 9, 1928). A troop in Unionville (in Orange County) would come on line a few months later as well. No doubt, a significant part of this large increase in membership was due to the establishment of the Council’s summer camp in the summer of 1928. Leap established Camp Sacajawea on the headwaters of the Robinson River in Madison County, located about two miles from the town of Syria and approximately three miles (east) from the entrance to President Hoover’s Rapidan River retreat. The name for the camp was fitting given that the Council was itself named for the famed early 19th century explorers of the Louisiana Purchase (Meriwether Lewis was also a native of Albemarle County).

The first summer camp session of 1928 lasted for 10 days in early July and included the Crozet, Gordonsville, University (UVa), and Fry’s Springs (Albemarle County) troops. A total of 43 scouts from troops in Orange, Warrenton, Culpeper, and Charlottesville attended the second 10-day camp session. A third 10-day camp session was also held, beginning July 30th, with a total of 40 scouts. The camp cook that summer was Jim Young (who may have been a young black man from Scottsville), who was roundly acclaimed by all the scouts as an excellent cook who could prepare any meal. The camp contained a headquarters cabin equipped with a kitchen and dining room, and there was ample access to the river for swimming and Red Cross lifesaving training. William Schwartz, Charles Lang, and Boyd Hoffer from Charlottesville; and Victor Marshall of Culpeper and Vincent Edwards of Roanoke, as well as Asst. Scoutmaster W.W. Parkinson of Warrenton passed the Red Cross Lifesaving certification at Camp Sacajawea.

The August 21, 1928 edition of the Orange County News reported that in addition to merit badges and rank advancements earned by several scouts, Vincent Edwards (from the Roanoke Council) was on staff at Camp Sacajawea and was awarded his Eagle Scout Rank by the Council court of honor during the second camp period in mid-August. This may have been the first Eagle Scout awarded by the new council.

After summer camp ended, Executive Leap determined that summer sessions at Camp Sacajawea were not sufficient and established a winter encampment there from December 28-31, 1928. The winter camp was much more exclusive, and a total of only 20 older scouts from across the Council with demonstrated experience in camping were invited, including; four scouts from Troop No. 1-Charlottesville, three scouts from Troop No. 1-University (UVa), one scout from Fry’s Springs Troop No. 1, three scouts from Gordonsville Troop No. 1, four scouts from Troop No. 1-Culpeper, and three scouts from Troop No. 2-Culpeper. The Hemlock Lodge building was the camp’s headquarters, and the encampment focused on teaching leadership skills for patrol leaders so they could be more effective in leading the scouts in their home troops. Executive Leap was the camp director and Dr. Halstead S. Hedges, Scoutmaster of Charlottesville Troop No. 1, (and BSA National Council member who lived to be 101 yrs. old) served as assistant camp director.

The 1928 report to the Council Board of Directors from Executive Leap noted that Dr. Vincent W. Archer served as the Albemarle County-Charlottesville District chairman from 1927-1929. L. Frank Smith was chairman of the Culpeper County District. Dr. J.B. Early was the chairman of the Madison County District, and Severn M. Nottingham chaired the Orange County District. The Council board in 1928-1929 included: C. Nelson Beck, Sol Kaufman, Sol D. Kline, Edward G. Lee, J. H. Lindsay, John L. Livers, UVA Dean Charles G. Maphis (member of the BSA National Council), Rev. W. Roy Mason, Rev. Henry Pheiffer, Vincent W. Archer, Judge A. D. Dabney, John A. Gilmore, L.N. Graves, A.W. Higgins, Z. L. Jarman, W.H. Surber, Capt. M. T. Fletcher, Rev. Noble C. Powell, W. F. Carter, Jr., Fred H. Quarles, N.T. Shumate, Donald G. Stevens, Dr. Dan O. Via, Capt. E. V. Walker, E. A. Joachim, H. H. Walker, Roscoe S. Adams, A.L. Bennett, H.R. Boswell, Judge T. Munford Boyd, J. Y. Brown, Nathaniel Burnley, E. J. Cooperhaver, F. W. Twyman, A. V. Conway, D. Van Wagenen, C. T. O’Neil, Dr. T. H. Daniel, George H. Whitten, Ed D. Tayloe, Alonza W. Rinehart III, Clark E. Lindsay, W. A. Barksdale, B. F. Dickenson, A. F. Howard, W. C. Shackelford, and George T. Omohundro. Mr. Virginius R. Shackelford (of Orange) served as the council president that year. Dr. C.H. Goldsborough (of Culpeper) was the council vice-president and N.T. Shumate (of Charlottesville) the council treasurer.

The August 9, 1928 edition of the Orange County News expanded on Leap’s 1928 report to the council and briefly mentioned that scouts from Charlottesville participated in the Region Three Boy Scout Jamboree, June 22-23 in Frederick, Maryland. Over 150 scouts from 14 councils in Virginia, Maryland, eastern Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia attended the event on behalf of their councils, which was held at Camp Baker in Braddock Heights, Maryland. The Jamboree was a high profile affair and under the direction of William Wessell, BSA Assistant National Camp Director. The contest measured Scouting skills needed for an overnight hiking trip. The patrols arrived fully prepared, and they were graded throughout their time at the Jamboree on arrangement of their camps, condition of equipment, neatness and utility of axe yards, cooking areas, shelters, etc. The Charlottesville Troop scored enough points (>850) to win a “Standard rating” award. This award was more prestigious than it’s name implies, as the only other unit from Virginia to earn this distinction was the patrol from the Roanoke Council.

During the Spring of 1929, Scout Executive Leap resigned his post as Council Executive. According to an article in the May 8, 1929 edition of Charlottesville’s, The Daily Progress, Regional Executive Charles Wood then returned to the city and made a direct appeal to the Charlottesville Rotary Club to assist in reviving the stagnated Council. The Rotary Club responded by forming a committee to assist in re-activating the Council organization. The Rotary’s committee consisted of Roscoe Adams, Emmett Gleason, Ed Joachim, Tom Farrar, Henry Fonda, and John Livers, a few of which had been members of the Council’s board of directors.

In June 1929, it was determined that as a part of the ongoing reorganization, the Council must engage in an aggressive community wide effort to raise funds to continue to sustain its work for the next fiscal year. A committee, mostly of prominent Charlottesvillians under the chairmanship of Albie Barksdale, distributed over 400 pledge cards to business leaders and known supporters of Scouting to gain the needed funds to put the Council on firmer financial footing.

An innovative method used to promote interest in the fundraising campaign was initiated on June 3rd, when a parade of approximately 50 Boy Scouts and leaders from area troops, led by a Boy Scout drum and bugle corps, marched from the C & O Train Station in downtown Charlottesville to the campus of the University of Virginia. The names of those in the parade were recorded in an article appearing in the June 4, 1929 edition of Charlottesville’s, The Daily Progress. The adult participants included: Bernard Chamberlain, Scoutmaster of University (UVa) Troop No. 1; H.T. Huff of Troop 1 in Earlysville (incorrectly listed in the article as Troop 7); Bailey Steed, Scoutmaster of Charlottesville Troop No. 2; Charlottesville Troop No. 1; and L.R. Whitten of North Garden Troop No. 1. The members of the Earlysville court of honor (B.I. Wood, Lewis Huff, and Edward Garrison) marched in the procession as well.

By July 1929, the leaderless Lewis and Clark Area Council’s fundraising campaign must have fallen far short of its goal. Not surprisingly, as a result, the Council was unable to financially sustain Camp Sacajawea. Regional Scout Executive Charles Wood was again in Charlottesville to make appeals to supporters for pledges of increased support and funding during the Council’s continuing reorganization (now in its third month). Culpeper County had since broken away from the Council that summer and formed its own independent city-wide council, under the direction of Chairman P.W. Fore. The new Culpeper Council had immediate financial success and raised enough funds to take over operations of Camp Sacajawea from the Lewis and Clark Area Council and sent Culpeper scouts for free. The July 11, 1929 edition of The Washington Post reported that Dr. Charles Goldsborough and H.P. Walton directed the 1929 summer camp sessions which lasted 10-days each.

According to a September 4, 1929 article in Charlottesville’s The Daily Progress, the reorganization of the Lewis and Clark Area Council was finally culminated on September 3, 1929 with the election of new Council officers and the appointment of a new Scout Executive (after a five month vacancy). The new Council officers were: W. Albie Barksdale, President; J.H. Lindsay, Vice-President; John L. Livers, Vice-President; Henry A. Haden, Treasurer; Paul C. Milliken, executive and secretary; and A.L. Bennett, Chairman of Training. The new Council board of directors consisted of: James F. Minor, Roscoe Adams, F.J. Edwards, Will Snyder, Fred Quarles, A.F. Howard, Rev. Roy Mason, D. Van Wagenen, Dr. Dudley Smith, Randolph Ortman, B.I. Wood, Rev. E.B. Meredith, and W.F. Carter, Jr. The Council Board also renewed its commitment to establishing a Scoutmaster Training School (which was first established in 1913 at the University of Virginia Summer School and operated for several years).

New Scout Executive, Paul C. Milliken, was an Eagle Scout, and he had previously served as a scoutmaster, committee member, and deputy scout commissioner in Delaware. He graduated from the BSA’s National Training School for Scout Executives and previously served in the Wilmington (Delaware) Council and the Reading-Berks (Pennsylvania) Council as Asst. Executive since March 1928. In addition to his Scouting positions, Milliken served for a number of years as physical director for YMCA branches in two different cities.

After its time of leadership uncertainty, the Council was then able to initiate and embark upon a nationally relevant service project. In November 1929, the Council partnered with the BSA Rural Scouting office to begin a nationwide program to honor President Thomas Jefferson thru the transplantation of black walnut seeds from Jefferson’s Monticello property for “Jefferson Memorial Trees”. The walnut seeds would be shipped from Charlottesville to BSA Headquarters in New York City and then redistributed to scout councils and camps across the United States. There they would be planted ceremoniously to sustain the memory of the third President of the United States and his accomplishments. The BSA would also initiate a memorial black walnut tree program (with seeds from Mount Vernon) for President George Washington (1931), and had previously completed tree programs in memory of Theodore Roosevelt (1926) and for Confederate General Robert E. Lee (1927). It would be an interesting task today to survey councils nationwide and determine how many of these memorial trees still stand.

Even under the leadership of a new scout executive, financial troubles apparently persisted for the Council into 1931. A result of this challenge was that the Council failed to develop a new permanent camp in the region, and during the summer of 1931 Lewis and Clark Area Council troops were attending summer camp at Camp Shenandoah (the summer camp of the neighboring Stonewall Jackson Area Council).

A report found in a June 15, 1931 edition of, The News Leader reported that Bernard Chamberlain, University (UVa) Troop No. 1, was elected the charter secretary of the newly formed SJAC Scoutmasters Association. This indicates that by mid-summer 1931, the Lewis and Clark Area Council was defunct, and it territory had been fully integrated into the Stonewall Jackson (Area) Council. In addition, an official report from Scout Executive J.W. Fix to the SJAC Board for the 1931 summer camp season listed the “Charlottesville” district as a subdivision of the Stonewall Jackson (Area) Council. Unfortunately no official summary of the SJAC action absorbing these former Lewis and Clark Area Council counties could be located.

Almost four and a half years from its initial founding, the Lewis and Clark Area Council, headquartered in Charlottesville, Virginia dissolved, probably due mostly to persisting financial difficulties and lack of a permanent summer camp. It was immediately absorbed into the territory administered by the four year old Stonewall Jackson (Area) Council to the west. Culpeper County had broken away from the council in 1929 in order to form its own second class council. No additional archival records could be found for Scout Executive Milliken, and it’s not known if he continued his professional Scouting career. Former Executive Leap had left Scouting and relocated to Birmingham, Alabama after he left council service in 1929.

A reconstructed listing of known Lewis and Clark Area Council Troops and their Scoutmasters is provided below. Unfortunately this list is incomplete, but the effort continues to examine additional archival sources to augment the known record of this council.

• Charlottesville YMCA Troop 1 (M.A. Mitchell (1927)/Halstead S. Hedges (1928-29))
• University (UVa) Troop 1 (Bernard Chamberlain)
• Fry’s Springs Troop 1 Crozet Troop 1
• Orange Troop 1 (Rev. Frank Riley)
• Gordonsville Troop 1 (Prof. J. Thomas Walker (1927-1930)/Rev. Robert A. Cooper (1931))
• Charlottesville Presbyterian Church Troop 1 (Lawrence Brunton)
• Charlottesville Methodist Church Troop 2 (Bailey Steed)
• Earlysville Troop No. 1 (H.T. Huff)
• North Garden Troop No. 1 (L.R. Whitten)
• Culpeper Troop No. 1
• Culpeper Troop No. 2
• Madison Troop No. 1
• Unionville (Orange Co.) Troop No. 1